30th July is famous for the story of two Test hat-tricks by English bowlers. The first one came at Old Trafford in 1995 and the second one came 16 years later at Trent Bridge and both helped England to win the respective matches comfortably.
In 1995 it was Dominic Cork who was the hero for England against West Indies. West Indies only scored 216 in their first innings with only Brian Lara making any significant contribution. England got a lead of 221 runs thanks to 94 from Graham Thorpe and unbeaten 56 from Cork, his maiden Test fifty. West Indies started well and on 161/3 with Lara and captain Richie Richardson on the crease looked set to challenge England but Cork was in the middle of a good spell and got Richardson bowled. He followed it up with two more straight deliveries and got Junior Murray and Carl Hooper LBW in the next two balls. The hat-trick was completed and West Indies were suddenly 161/6.
Dominic Cork's Test Hat-Trick against West Indies
Lara tried single-handedly and scored a brilliant 145 out of the team total of 314 but a target of 94 runs was never challenging and England got to the target with six wickets in hand.
In 2011, it was the Indians against whom Stuart Broad took his hat-trick. Just a few months back India became the World Champion and they also had the number one ranking in the Test. They lost the first Test at Lord’s and while coming to Trent Bridge, key players like Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were ruled out due to injury. Still, India started well and at one stage England were 124/8 in the first innings. Then a mighty 64 from Stuart Broad took England to 221.
Stuart Broad's Test Hat-Trick against India
India batted and reached 267/4, thanks to Rahul Dravid’s 34th Test hundred and fifties from VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh. But Broad got Yuvraj with the score on 267 as India’s fifth wicket. Soon with the score on 273, Broad got the dangerous MS Dhoni caught by Anderson in the second slip. Harbhajan Singh was LBW on the next ball and Broad completed his hat-trick as Praveen Kumar was clean bowled next day. With this both Broad and Harbhajan joined Shane Warne, Darren Gough, and Nuwan Zoysa to become players who have taken hat-trick and also became part of hat-trick in Test cricket.
From then on it was England’s Test match. India folded for 288 with a lead of just 67. England posted 544 in the second innings thanks to an Ian Bell classic among some controversies and India could score only 158 runs in the fourth innings and lost the Test match by 319 runs.
